Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 Review
Review Date: March 20th 2007
Author: Gavin Stoker
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were captured using the 7.5M Fine (3072 x 2352) JPEG image size option producing a file that is around 3Mb in size.
Noise
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 has 5 ISO settings. Noise is noticeable from ISO 400 upwards – nothing we haven’t witnessed before of course, and the L1 is not the worst offender, but it doesn’t quite for me deliver a result that justifies the outlay. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images at the default setting are soft and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop, or you change the in-camera sharpening level if you don't like the default results.
Original
(100% Crop)
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Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 dealt extremely well with chromatic aberrations during the review, with very limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations. Here is a 100% crop which shows the typical chromatic aberrations that you can expect:
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Chromatic
Aberrations (100% Crop)
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Macro
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 allows you to focus on a subject that is 29cms away from the camera with the supplied lens. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
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Macro Shot |
Macro Shot (100% Crop) |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 are Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Forced On/Red-eye Reduction, Slow Sync., Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Forced On/Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (28mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (100mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (100mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Forced On and Red-Eye Reduction options caused any amount of red-eye.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction |
Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds and there's also a Bulb mode, which is excellent news if you're interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 0.5 seconds, aperture of f/9 at ISO 1600. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
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Night Shot |
Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Overall Image Quality
Given the combination of that price tag, the Leica lens whacked on the front – and the fact that I’d just tested Olympus’ own Four Thirds baby the E-400 prior to the L1 and found images noticeably sharp and bright – I was expecting great things here. That’s not quite what I got – and here’s why. Though there’s little evidence of purple fringing unless you really, really look for it, even on an overcast day it’s easy to lose highlight detail unless you underexpose by a couple of stops, a slightly underexposed image being preferable to one devoid of detail. Though the above concerns are being picky, the biggest bugbear I found with the L1 was its inability – if left on auto – to determine accurate focus in low or filtered natural light. For me its performance in this respect was far less reliable than the likes of Nikon’s D40, which costs a third of the L1. The frustrating result being far more blurred or missed images than I’d have liked. Switching to manual focus, I found the visibility of the viewfinder could have done with being a lot brighter. Noise is also noticeable from ISO 400 upwards – nothing we haven’t witnessed before of course, and the L1 is not the worst offender, but it doesn’t quite for me deliver a result that justifies the outlay. There’s also, perhaps inevitably, some converging of verticals when shooting at extreme wide angle though the shots are not without dynamism. Could do better is the overall feeling; the L1 is not bad, but it requires a bit of work and a lot of patience to achieve the results you’re after.
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for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
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